NIA files charge sheet against chief recruiter for Islamic State in India

Mumbai: NIA on Monday filed a charge sheet against the chief recruiter for the banned Islamic State terror group in India Shafi Armar alias Yusuf-Al-Hindi and three others for allegedly being involved in various terror activities in the country.

Representational image. Reuters

The NIA filed the charge sheet against Armar, Rizwan Ahmed, Mohsin Ibrahim Sayyed and Ayaz Mohammed before a special court here under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

While Armar and Mohammed are absconding, the two others are in judicial custody.

The NIA said it found during the probe that Armar and his three accomplices hatched a conspiracy between July and December 2015 to "influence, instigate, motivate and radicalise the young vulnerable Muslim youth from Malwani area of Malad, Mumbai, to join the ISIS."

All the four had used numerous social networking platforms for waging jihad by violent means to attract the attention of like-minded persons and motivate vulnerable youngsters to indulge in terror activities for the banned international terrorist organisation, Islamic State, with an intent to threaten the integrity of the nation.

According to the NIA, Ayaz Mohammed went to Iraq via Afghanistan and joined the Islamic State. He was in contact with Mohsin Ibrahim Sayyed and a few other youths from Malwani, whom he tried to radicalise and motivate to join the Islamic State.

Sayyed tried to spread his network and motivated youths to participate in the activities of the Islamic State in India, and for this purpose, he was in close contact with Rizwan 'Nayab Ameer' of the organisation which was affiliated to the Islamic State.

Rizwan Ahmed, who was also a member of SIMI, Jundul Khilafa Al Hind (JKH), Indian Mujahideen and Ansar-Ut-Tauheed (AUT), had made elaborate preparations and went to Chennai for collecting money for Jihad.

NIA said they prepared fake identity cards and used assumed names to conceal their identities. They extensively used different social media platforms like Facebook, Trillian, WeChat, WhatsApp, Surespot and Telegram, to communicate among themselves, besides exchanging e-mails.

The NIA said there was evidence to establish that Armar was the on-line handler in this conspiracy and was involved in motivating and radicalising the "vulnerable" Muslim youths all over the country.

A resident of Bhatkal in Karnataka, Armar was believed to have been killed in a US drone attack in March this year but the news proved wrong after he started getting in touch with youths again in May this year.